Aladdin and the Power of the Rings
by FromA-Z
Summary: Continuing on his ever-lasting lust for power, Mozenrath discovers the power of the genie of the ring, hidden away in a lost library. Despite its lesser powers, the genie will help him find the ultimate supremacy to finally rule: Solomon's Seal.
1. A Discovery Worth More

**Editor and Co-Author's Note: **_This is actually a roleplay between my good friend, Z, and I, A. Our pen name is FromA-Z for good reason. Anything here is effort credited to both of us. The fact that it's a roleplay in which each of us takes turns posting for specific characters will explain the odd set up of interaction between characters._

_Review and Enjoy!_

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Gauntlets, bottles, lamps, mirrors, statues... it was probably harder to accidentally stumble something that wasn't enchanted in the desert cities. But when you actually want to find something?

Not even a gauntlet of power and a floating eel are going to help you.

Mozenrath sighed to himself as he flipped through the seventh book in the pile with his bare left hand. His gauntlet hadn't done anything untoward yet, but he really didn't want to risk it in such an atmosphere. Setting the book aside, practically on Xerxes for the seventh time, he looked around and wondered.

The air was heavy with legends, so much so that even he, full of power as he was, felt bowed down and aged by the weight of them. But that was why he was here, after all. It had taken so much time, so much effort, to find this lost library. The sand was pressing down on the roof even now, almost audibly, the path he had cut from the surface with his magic had collapsed at his very heels. But here, every legend you heard in your childhood, every magical rumor that ran from mouth to mouth in the markets, every one of them was a fact that was written down here. All the knowledge was right here, all around him. Knowledge was power.

He_ loved_ power.

And he wanted another taste of it. Something potent, but portable, like his own precious keepsake. The books seemed useless for that so far, though their information was interesting. If only there was a faster way, a way that didn't involve wandering blind among the labyrinth of warped shelves and spines almost unnervingly vibrant for their age, as if no time had passed at all. It was a beautiful sight, but he had no patience for it. The atmosphere made him feel old. Perishable.

Shaking away such grim thoughts, he started to pull out books with greater zeal. His efforts would not go unrewarded, of that he was certain. A set of books seemed less certain, but they finally yielded to his stubbornness, falling aside to show him a neat little alcove.

"What is this?"

A panel was embedded deep within the alcove, cunningly locked. Cunningly, but not sturdily, and the gauntlet made short work of it. Something so concealed must be fantastically powerful, no?

His face fell as he drew out a ring. It didn't look particularly fantastic. It looked more like... well...

There were always stories on the streets, if you were willing to listen. Usually he wasn't, but the word Djinni had caught his attention.

... a lesser djinni.

Despite himself, he nearly smiled. As if this dusty old library and its long-dead dusty old scholars could ever own something like a djinni, ever a minor one. Why, if that was true, he's merely have to turn the stone so, and out would pop a djinni like from a lamp or bottle.

_Welcome to another Arabian Night._

Upon the turn of the stone, a shimmering tingle blew the layers of dust off the pretty, little ring. Unlike before, as if a ray of magic had just touched it, the unimpressive stone glowed in a miraculous light and another poof off old dust was blown off.

Immediately, long swirls of colored smoke began rain from the stone, lifting up the sands around as magic began to fill the air. It wasn't strong magic, but the sudden surge of it was enough to rattle the long withstanding shelves.

As the smoke and sand subsided, and he could finally open his eyes through the glaring light that the jewel caused, Mozenrath was able to see the just what or who had escaped the itty, bitty living space.

There, before him, was a djinn as the ring had promised. A young, lesser djinni with the remarkable features of a child, because that's exactly what she was. She floated before him, releasing every bit of excess magic the ring had shook off on her, until the vibes settled to their natural flow.

Mozenrath's lustful search for power would be infuriated. The fruits of his labor gave him nothing more than a child who's essence couldn't even match up to his gauntlet's. Her smile brightened as she finally grasped the concept of more elbow room. She had been in that ring far too long to even remember what it felt like to move.

A joyous glow sparkled from her as she stretched.

"Master!" The young girl called, "It's been so long! I wondered when you would summon me again!"

She floated down to Mozenrath's eye level and blinked curiously as she finally paid attention to the man with her stone. A curious eyebrow quirked.

"Where did your beard go, Master Usman?"

Master Usman's beard went six feet under. Her scholarly master had succumbed to mortality many years ago. Her eyes widened as she looked around. The library. It seemed ancient.

_Beard?_

Mozenrath's hand shot to his chin self-consciously. Had he really been down that long? Surely, surely the gauntlet hadn't been sapping his life-force more than normal? Or perhaps the effort of creating a tunnel for himself was too great...

A prime fact finally worked its way into his mildly panicking thoughts.

_Usman?_

Ah, of course. No doubt some scholar, long dead. But what use would a mere scholar have for a djinni? Particularly one that didn't look all that powerful. He knew better than to judge by appearances, but this girl barely looked like she could keep an old man's beard in check.

She looked so confused by her decrepit surroundings, like any little child would be. Clearly, this had to be handled carefully so as not to frighten her.

Unfortunately, this was Mozenrath.

"Of what use are you?"

In his own mind, a scholar with three wishes would have wished for all this knowledge to come in a trice to save effort, and something involved with NOT dying. So she had to be good for something else...

The child djinn was taken back. She floated a few inches away from the strange man when she realized this wasn't at all Master Usman. Normally a friendly girl, his harsh tone to her frightened the lesser djinn to silence.

Of what use was she?

She didn't know how to answer this. Her whole life she had been a djinn, but she had never quite served a purpose. Or at least that's what she thought.

Unlike any other genie of any other inanimate object, the child's beginning did not come from the anger of Allah. She had been far too young to have cursed her existence into slavery, and for that, the Almighty had been merciful on her. Her father had been the one to have become bound to servitude and as her mother, but as she had been a child djinn; her power was limited.

She could not grant a wish.

She could not possess a soul.

The smokeless fire which she had been created of could barely set a twig on ablaze. This restriction of magic was to ensure her well-being to those who would abuse the power of the djinn, such as the man before her.

However, Mozenrath was more cunning and ruthless. The child djinn WAS going to be of some use to him. He just had to find _how_.

"I don't know." The girl quietly replied, "What can I do?"

Had he had a little less than perfect composure at this moment, he would have slapped his forehead, or possibly blown up a few shelves, in frustration. To him, her questioning reply was not confusion, but a desire to make his life difficult. This he would not bear for very long. A palace-guard's saber was less sharp in manner than he was.

His expression perfectly calm, his voice perfectly flat, he stepped forward to bring the distance between them back to what it was, half-raising his gauntlet. Even if she did not know what it was, it was a clear threat.

Mozenrath did _not_ like not getting what he wanted. At once.

"What did the old man use you for?"

The child fidgeted. Her fingers nervously tapped the golden bracelets around her wrists that confined her to the ring, as she tried to think.

What did he mean?

How could the old man ever have used her?

The girl, unaware of the common belief of genies the surface world has, simply shrugged.

"I-I don't know." She admitted, "We traveled a lot."

That's all she could manage to say. Her bubbly attitude was burst by the sharp edge that was his tolerance.

"I'd help him find things."

That little sentence. She helped him find things. Perhaps it was her presence that had let the old scholar speak of great magical myths and legends as if they were real? It couldn't be. How could a djinn like her possibly be of any use?

The child suddenly spoke, in a sad attempt to ease the tension, "My name is Zaria."

As if he was seeing it written in burning letters across the sky, Mozenrath suddenly had a thought.

She helped him find things? Perhaps it was her presence that had let the old scholar speak of great magical myths and legends as if they were real? After all, one man could hardly hope to find so much by accident or design, when many searchers would be lucky to find even one talisman, long-dead to the magic which inhabited it.

All of a sudden, she was a little less useless to him, though certainly not for long if she continued to be so intimidated. It was hard to look non-threatening when cold as marble and tense as a tiger is your base state, but to his credit, his voice managed to soften by the smallest amount.

"And I am Mozenrath. What kind of things, Zaria?"

She smiled as he replied. He had managed to chip just enough of his marble state to coax a frightened child. There isn't more to open a young one with than a trusting, calming voice.

"Things. The things he wrote about." Zaria admitted, as her feet began to touch the ground for once. She began to walk down the long corridor of countless of books, bringing out a few of them as her previously quiet self began to ease into the energetic child she really was.

"Like in here!" She beamed as a dusty old book opened, "Oh, here he wrote of the mythical Nasnas. You, you reek of necromancy magic, Mr. Mozenrath-sir. No offense, but it's really stinky. You might be familiar with the Nasnas!"

She spun into the air and her form melted away into that of a morbid zombie-like creature. She only possessed an arm and leg now, and half her body had melted off. She hopped around and growled furiously.

"They were birthed from a demon and a human and the most powerful Nasnas, the last of them, guarded a very precious metal that could weaken a karkadann! Oh! That reminds me!"

The girl proved to be a natural chatterbox. She could not begin one story without spilling into a million others. Now, she counted the tale of when she and Usman hunted the mythical unicorn-like creature of India, the karkadann. She went on as how they studied it. How they sought out its horn as Zaria felt magic from it, and soon found out of its mystical healing abilities when a ringdove would sing near it.

She went on and on, opening books as she continued. Soon enough, there were more books floating along the hallway than there were on the shelves as the stories she spun summoned the writings to prove them.

"Really? How-"

_Irritating_.

"-fascinating. And you can sense any kind of magic, can you?"

If only she would stop careening around the place so much. Some of those floating books were getting dangerously close to knocking his calmness right off the map. On the other hand, if she could really sense power and lead him to it, it was best to at least attempt to put up with her.

If she didn't do her job after the first chance, he could go back to being his charming self.

"I notice you don't have everything, though."

After all, he had come looking for manipulative power. Healing and monsters were all very well, but one was no use to him and one needed control. A name sprang to mind.

"Solomon's seal could constrain and control any kind of magic, as I hear. His ring must have been a very, very powerful thing. Did your master ever find such an artifact?"

Zaria's babble ceased. For that moment, her mind turned gears as she tried to remember what had seemed yesterday, but had actually happened many moons ago.

"No." She responded, solemnly, "That was what Master Usman said we were going out to find the last night I ever saw him. I then went to sleep in my ring and the next time I came out was when you brought me out, Mr. Mozenrath-sir."

The books slowly began to return to their rightful place. Whatever fate had fallen Master Usman that night was lost to history. He had been very old, so perhaps, it wasn't simply in his life to live another night. Sadly, the child, that had warmed up to him as he had been her grandfather, was unaware. That is the misfortune of being an immortal. She was too young to understand this.

And she was too young to understand Mozenrath's true intentions.

She floated high above the shelves and took a view of the decrepit, rattled library. There was more sand within than she could remember. The wood of the remaining fixtures was damaged and falling. There wasn't any sunlight seeping in through the window. Only more sand.

As if a hundred years of sand had blown into it.

"W-where is Master Usman?"

The fear had been brought back into her voice.

And he had been trying so hard to keep her calm, too. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, his gaze just followed her path upwards, more concerned with the time she was wasting than the poor creature's worry and confusion. Did she want him to die here as well?

"This library has been abandoned and buried for over a hundred years, child."

Ah, Mozenrath. Always the comforting shoulder. True, he could have said he had no idea, and offered to help find him. While it would certainly have gotten her attention more quickly, there was the snag of pretending to help her instead of the other way around as it should be. Paying no attention whatsoever so how she might be reacting to the calm, 'this place has been lost and anyone who knew about it just as lost for a century', he simply picked up the book he vaguely remembered to be pertaining to the ring and it's workings, and dusted it off.

"Come."

Of course, she had no choice while he had a ring with him, but being imperious was a habit.

She didn't listen. She remained at her spot, looking over the shattered remains of what she used to call home.

"Master Usman." She weakly called out, with a childish hope of hearing his response.

Nothing.

Where could he have gone to?

The cuffs at her wrists shimmered as they sensed the ring moving away, and as the ring moved further, the cuffs followed suit; whether she wanted to or not. The cuffs dragged her onward.

"Huh-wha-?" She squeaked.

This was odd! This was strangely involuntary! The shackles at her arms forced her forward, tugging at her binding with the ring. She tried to fight back. Never had she before in her life been exposed to the enslavement of her kind.

"No!" She protested, through worry, "What if he comes back? Maybe he got lost on his way to the market! It looks like there was a bad sandstorm! Okay, maybe several bad sandstorms!"

She insisted on staying, but the ring pulled her otherwise, "How are you pulling me! Stop! Please!"

Despite his calmness, the gauntlet sparked as his patience began to fray. Turning, back, he bent down and held the ring out in front of her eyes before slipping it on his bare hand. Alright. Time to be brutal.

"The man who once owned this ring is dead. He will not come for you again. This marks me as your new master. And this-"

He now held out the gauntlet and let it glow. It was nothing, a simple display, but she would be able to feel the power just waiting to strike.

"-will ensure that you _will _do as I say."

His point made, he allowed the power to build up until he could see the white-hot light reflected in her eyes, and then turned to release it, the beam blasting its way out of the half-open doorway and towards the surface.

"Another time, that might be you. _Come_."

Blocking out any future protests, he headed back towards the surface, leaving poor Xerxes to catch up as best as he could.

That was too much for a child to take. Her world shattered. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. The knot at her throat didn't even let her swallow. The sheer power from the gauntlet that nearly burnt her skin was enough to frighten her into obedience. She had no other choice.

Zaria followed him, silently. Her mind running wild with questions. Why is her Master dead? Why was the library so run down? Had it been a hundred years already?

She didn't know. Time was relative, and to her, time was her uncle's sister's cousin's best friend's janitor, twice removed.

This man reeked of power. She could feel that strong aura of the dark sands pricking at her bones. What malevolent power had he already possessed. She might young, but she wasn't stupid.

The great power of Solomon's Seal laying upon the wrong hands could be a horrible faith untold.

And this man, the horrid man who dragged her out of her home, would be the one to speak this horrible tale.

Not caring in the least for her dramatic mental monologue, he simply focused on keeping the tunnels from caving in around them. Finally back out in the sunlight, he quirked his kip in distaste at the glaring yellow orb before suddenly rounding on the poor girl again.

"I propose a test."

After all, he couldn't trust her with finding Solomon's Seal without knowing exactly how she worked. Knowledge was power, and power gave him control.

"Let me see. Take me to the nearest magic you can sense. The nearest magic that isn't my gauntlet or Xerxes," he added quickly, remembering the djinni fondness for taking things a little too literally just to be irritating. It didn't occur to him for a moment that she might not to privy to the little spites and fits of boredom other djinni were famous for. It did briefly occur to him to wonder as to why the being would adopt such a tiny, un=intimitading form, but he brushed it aside. If it wasn't related to his current desire, it could certainly wait.

"What? Uh, now?" Zaria nervously stated.

No, she wasn't unsure of her abilities, she was simply unsure of Mozenrath's reaction. So far, it seemed like everything displeased him, and the child already learned that with this guy, you do not want to mess around.

The girl didn't make a big show. She simply closed her eyes and tried to focus.

"Yeah." She added, "There's magic far off in the distance. A great source of it, by what I can feel."

She pointed.

She pointed towards Agrabah.


	2. The Race Begins

"Hm..."

If she had been hoping for any reassurance about doing well by managing so quickly, she wasn't going to get it. Being in the middle of the desert, he wasn't likely to immediately pick up on where they were going, but it wouldn't be long.

"Come, then. We'll travel as far as possible."

Of course she'd need no rest, and his curiosity rather undermined much need for breaks, so it was a much shorter trip than he'd estimated. Within view of the glittering domes of the city, he very much wanted to groan. There had never been a time in Agrabah when he wasn't thwarted by a certain irritating...

Ah well. There was no crime in a little treasure hunting, was there? Shaking his head, he pressed on, not waiting for either Zaria or Xerxes in the least. They could catch up. Zaria had no choice in the matter as it was.

"Show me."

In the tales Scheherazade spoke to her husband, she told of the djinni of the ring's magical transportation powers. She had brought back and forth many of her masters between the Arabian Deserts and China instantaneously as her master commanded. However, this was only to further the plot, you see, for if she took too long, the Sultan might tire of her never-ending, boring tale and behead her just as planned.

In truth, the djinni of the ring was like a cheetah. Fast, but for short periods of time. Mozenrath, it would seem, would be quick to find out of her strong limitations. Not that he had been fooled she was an all-powerful being right now. No, it seemed the exact opposite.

Of all the magical creatures in the world, he had to get stuck with their understudy's understudy.

As they both struggled to catch up within the bustling city, as even the darkest of alleys were filled with people, Zaria turned to Xerxes.

"So, what are you? A flying anchovy?"

Xerxes hissed, "No."

"A tuna, then! I knew it."

The eel slithered up to his master, "Get rid of her..."

Not like Mozenrath hadn't thought that option up. Hey, it didn't hurt to suggest it. Okay, with Mozey, there, it _could_ hurt.

"Right behind this wall!" Zaria suddenly called out, "I sense it! Ooh! It's big! I don't know what it's for!"

"FOOOOOOOORREEEE!"

And crashing through the palace gate wall was, in fact, a large '4'. It left a hole in its exact shape and a certain blue djinni's head sheepishly peeked out from the damaged property. Luckily, Mozenrath and Zaria had been on opposite sides of the numerical disaster.

"I _told_ you it was a large four!" The Genie stated, fixing his golfing cap. He tossed his bag of driving irons over his shoulder and looked around, as if he couldn't see the trail of disaster the four had left.

"If I hit another four, I might be able to see where the other one went off to." He continued, seemingly speaking to no one, "What iron should I use? The fourteen driving iron or the curling iron? I mean, my hair is a disaster."

"You have GOT to be kidding me." A certain red parrot's voice piped up from the opposite side of the wall. This was the particular no one Genie had been speaking to. The disgruntled avian fluttered up to the Genie's shoulder and settled, "Ya know, ya think you're driving this golf-thing, but you're really just driving me insane."

Zaria had a broad grin across her face. She looked over to Mozenrath through the crumbling wall. She found the source of the magic! Or at least, part of it.

Mozenrath, on the other hand, did not look impressed at all. In fact, microscopic examination might have revealed a nerve twitching under one eye, but only very slightly.

He was perfectly calm.

"Is that _my_ curling iron?" came an amused voice, and its owner, a green female djinn, floated into view. "Really, Genie. Well, I suppose it's par for the course. How's it going?"

"He's knocked down a wall and you're asking him about his score?" Jasmine asked, half-occupied with keeping an eye out for the guards in case they had heard the crash. In case. Of course they had.

It was only a matter of time before they came careening in, ready to arrest everyone, even if there was no-one to arrest. At least no-one could say they weren't keen and alert.

"Well, he needed to play through," Eden attempted sheepishly, realising this wasn't much of an excuse. Still, to a djinn, a knocked-down wall wasn't such a big deal. All it took was a snap of the fingers to fix. The score, on the other hand...

"Alright, alright." Smiling, Jasmine to just give it up. They were entitled to their fun, after all. "As long it's fixed back up again. Where's Dandhi?"

"My dear little master-girl is fast asleep with Rajah!" Eden said enthusiastically. "He's such a sweet thing. Took to her at once."

Rajah did tend to take to people, social tiger that he was. He took to some people like he took to plates of food, or places to sharper his claws on. Luckily for Dandhi, he didn't mind her being alive in his presence. How sweet. Abu, on the other hand, he had less patience with, so the little monkey had been roped into watching where the balls fell after Genie's wild shots propelled them sky-high.

When he wasn't propelling numbers wall-wise.

"Aladdin's Genie," Mozenrath said blankly. "That will certainly be a lot of use to me."

He certainly, certainly wasn't happy with this development, and his gauntlet started to show it.

Zaria frowned upon seeing Mozenrath's reaction and in an instant, and a short burst of magic as a simple rush of wind past everyone: the djinn child had taken Mozenrath and herself out of plain sight.

"That was _not_ me!" Genie exclaimed, "Abu, really! There's people present!"

Surely, that was going to get a confused expression from the poor monkey.

"Uh, Jasmine, can you let me handle this?" Finally, the hero of Agrabah made his appearance, standing proudly with his hands at his waist, "After all, I _am_ the new Sultan of Agrabah!"  
This was true. Jasmine's father, feeling his old age coming, finally stepped down from his throne and, with all measures of great honor, gave the fate of the City to Aladdin. The young man had proven time and time again of his great bravery and excellence in keeping Agrabah safe from harm.

Although, sometimes, the Street Rat Turned Royalty did let a little ego escape his modesty. Jasmine rolled her eyes in good nature and playfully pulled down the feather of his turban down, covering Al's eyes.

"Don't worry, Al." Genie exclaimed, magically transforming his garb into that of a janitor, "We's gonna do a good job cleanin' up the place. Let's go, Eden, Iago, Monkey-Boy."  
Iago was taken by surprise as a vacuum cleaner suddenly appeared at his wings. The misplaced appliance revved up violently and shot out through the wreck the '4' left, leaving only the trailing screams of the parrot disappearing over the horizon.

Genie leaned back and grinned to his French Maid girlfriend, "And you keep that little outfit for later!"

"Genie!"

"A'ite, Sultan Al, which, by the way isn't as cool as when I made you Prince Ali because I went all out and got you your own huge musical number performed by ME." He stopped and caught his breath,"Woah. Talk about a run-on sentence. Anyhow, I'll get back to cleaning, and may you never EVER let the wild fours escape from the zoo again! What sultan you are!"

He made himself laugh. The idea of little fours running in a cage with horns just tickled him so. The blue djinn made his way down the trail, cleaning up as he went, and collecting as much of Iago's feather's as he could.

Aladdin sighed and smiled, "This job is harder than I thought!"

Meanwhile, Zaria leaned out of the lone, little window as the Genie made his way past. She couldn't understand. Well, perhaps the Genie's semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic powers just didn't attract Mozenrath, but the other djinn made up for it! The child looked back to him and frowned.

"Well, at least I proved I could track down magic, right?" The girl nervously said, "It was two genies, too! Okay, so the big blue one wasn't all there but it should count right?"

It did count, but it was starting to sound like she was trying to prove him wrong.

He certainly didn't like being wrong.

Rounding on her, he kept his expression perfectly neutral.

"Magic, yes, but magic that is both of no use to me, and quite likely to become an irritation if they find out I'm here. This was _one_ chance for you to prove your worth. Do you _really_ think your justification will make things any better?"

The little vanishing trick was quite nice, though. Maybe he shouldn't be too hasty. With that in mind, he bult up a little energy and brought the gauntlet right up near her head, keeping it there just long enough for her to be nicely terrified before releasing it out the window just past her ear. The room was decrepit enough that just the power rushing past make the rafters tremble, so letting it off into the open air was the better, if unsatisfactory, option

"But. You're young."

And useless. Holding that opinion back, he patted her on the head coldly. It wasn't in the least reassuring, since he had been threatening to burn her face off with the same had just a second ago. If anything, it was even more worrying.

"Maybe I'll give you one more chance. Yes?"

That was all very well, but Mozenrath had done precisely what he was worried Zaria would have done. The window was quite high above the streets, but Eden and Genie had that one more wonderful thing in common in that they were both inquisitive at the worst of moments. Entirely forgetting about dusting, she tapped her blue boyfriend on the shoulder.

"Genie, did you just hear something? Like a little bitty bug zapper high in the sky..."  
Abu just shook his head and tilted her face up towards the window. He'd seen something. He didn't know what it WAS, but it was something.

"Is that where it is? I wonder... I'm going undercover," she announced, turning into a sheet and slinking towards the building and up it's side like an inchworm. She really couldn't have helped herself even if she'd tried. Nearer to the window, perhaps a little bugging would be more appropriate.

"Now what do we have here?"

Eden, however, would find nothing. Just the old abandoned room, with what perhaps was the last of a sizzle smoldering along the windows edges. Zaria, as soon as Mozenrath had detailed how the two sources of magic finding him would only spell trouble, and her unfortunate early demise at his hands, made it her sole duty to put in her escapist skills to work.

She had them, once again, zip through a small burst of pure wind. Extreme velocity but at the cost of low endurance left them now at a neighboring building.

"I'm sorry!" Zaria pleaded pitifully, "I didn't know! I'll find better magic but I can find it! Just don't burst me into a zillion, zillion, zillionbajillion pieces because I can't even do a hundred piece puzzle set! I mean, I guess I could if I started with the corners but I'm not exactly made out of corners!" Her distress turned comical. She flailed her arms.

"What if I lose a piece? I'll end up like the big blue genie! I don't want a beard!"

The girl quickly pieced herself back together after a show of a literal jigsaw puzzle taking apart her body. She exhaled and brushed back her hair.

Had he paid attention to Eden, perhaps Genie could have helped her find the source of the noise before it had gone away. He, however, was too focused on gluing Iago's feathers to the bird's butt to have noticed anything. Iago sat, grumbling.

"Do you know how many feathers I've lost since I started hanging around with you guys?" He inquired, "Six thousand seven hundred and eighty one."

"Now, hold still, honey." Genie, now a hairdresser, chimed as he let a hairdryer blow and fluff up Iago's head feathers into a stylish afro.

Iago settled his 'hair' and snatched the remaining feathers from Genie's hand, "No additions, jerk."

He let his wings expand as he took into the air to get away from that annoying djinn, and found a nice roosting spot to settle while he finished sticking the last of his feathers on his exposed skin.

"Six thousand seven hundred and eight _two_... six thousand seven hundred and eighty _three_..."

"I can find Solomon's Seal, I promise!"

Iago paused and hopped a few branches nearer to the window that he had heard this from.

"We'll start right away." Zaria said, looking through the old room's forgotten items, "Look, a pot. I can do something with this."

She shattered the pot on the ground and the bronze shards took shape of a lean, Arabic horse. The girl draped a rug over its back, "We have a long way. We must go to the Kingdom of Israel, where Solomon's power once reigned. Perhaps there, I'll be able to sense the magic from his grave to find the whereabouts to his ring."

"Sense magic of grave _how_?" Xerxes pushed.

Upon hearing that familiar voice, Iago listened in closer, practically pressing up against the wall of the building. He could care less about the dangling feathers at his tail.

"Well," Zaria said, "It's said that the Kingdom of Israel was practically buried with him! All the jewels, gold, silver, and magic to honor the wisest of Kings. It is said that his legendary wisdom was bestowed upon his tomb, and there is no greater power than wisdom. If these tales are true, I will be able to find him."  
At the mention of jewels and gold, Iago stopped listening. He heard what he wanted to hear and with that, the greedy, little mongrel flew straight back to Aladdin.

"Kid! Kid!" The pudgy parrot gasped, obviously such a quick and fast flight had left him out of breath, "You won't believe what I just heard!"

"Iago, calm down!" Aladdin grabbed him before he could collapse on the floor, "What is it?"

"He probably just heard a gold coin fall out of someone's wallet." Genie quipped.

"Almost, that creepy worm thing-" He began.

"Xerxes." Nearly everyone responded.

"-yes... I heard him talking with, well, I don't know who, and they're going to go find Salamander's grave!"

"Solomon?"

"YES!"

"Mozenrath is up to something!" Aladdin said, "And we have to find out what! Genie?"

"Waaaaaaay ahead of you, Al!" The Genie said as he poofed in what was practically an entire library, shelves and all, "You know, I could never get the Dewey Decimal system right."  
Reaching into a shelf he pulled out Dewey Duck who handed him a book, "Ah! There we go. Thanks. Tell Uncle Scrooge I said 'Hi'!"

Everything disappeared as quickly as it had come and Genie strolled up to Aladdin, using thick-reading glasses to look over a book entitled "What Mozenrath Could Use As Weapons: A Deep Study of Well Almost Everything In This World, Even A Whisk."

"So, _that's_ how he'd use a whisk." The Genie commented, "Alright, under S, S, S, S, S. Sausage. Sombrero. Ah! Solomon's Seal. A magic ring that controls demons, the undead, genies, and the supernatural. It is also very stylish."

He sets the book aside and looks to Eden, "Well, that's good. I never did like gaudy rings."

Cue double take.

"WAIT A SECOND, I'M KIND OF, LIKE A GENIE."

Cue traumatic flashbacks of every little thing that happened each time Mozenrath would get his hands on him or Eden.

"Al! Al! At least the Crystal of Ix had elbow room! I do NOT fit in a ring!" He practically shook the turban off of his friend's head.

"Don't worry, Genie!" Aladdin said as he tried to get his eyes to stop rolling, "We'll stop him. We've done so many times before, right? Let's go! We got to get to this grave first before they do!"

* * *

_And there are the two first chapters. Reviews decide whether I bother continuing to upload the story, since if I don't know if people are actually enjoying our work, I'll stop bothering to copy-paste me and Z's writings together._


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